Kerri Walsh Jennings, April Ross Face Yet Another Brazilian Team in Post Olympic Beach Volleyball Tourney in Long Beach

LONG BEACH, CA — Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross will face another Brazilian duo Thursday as pool play concludes in the $800,000 World Series of Beach Volleyball on Alamitos Beach in Long Beach.

Eight days after winning Olympic bronze medals, the top-seeded team of Walsh Jennings and Ross will face the 16th-seeded Brazilians Maria Antonelli and Liliane Maestrini in a match set to begin at 5 p.m. The winner will finish atop Pool A.

Both teams won both their matches Wednesday.

Walsh Jennings and Ross defeated 17th-seeded Melissa Humana-Paredes and Taylor Pischke of Canada, 21-16, 21-17, in 37 minutes, in their opening match.

Walsh Jennings and Ross defeated the 32nd-seeded Brazilian team of Carol and Ana Patricia, 21-17, 21-19, in 34 minutes, in their second match.

Walsh Jennings and Ross held their first post-Olympics practice on Tuesday.

"We were a little slow and our coach (Mario Sicoli) stopped it in the middle," said Walsh Jennings, who teamed with the now-retired Misty May- Treanor to win Olympic gold medals in 2004, 2008 and 2012.

"He was like 'Snap into it, we've got a tournament to play.' He kind of got us going and said we need to be here mind, body and soul and just realizing that and showing up with that intention was important."

The Brazilians Larissa and Talita, who lost to Walsh Jennings and Ross in the bronze medal match, are seeded second. They won both their matches in Pool B Wednesday, but got a scare in their first match from two former Southern California college stars.

Pepperdine alumna Kelley Larsen and Loyola Marymount alumnus Betsi Flint, won the first set, 21-19, but Larissa and Talita won the final two, 21- 14, 15-13, in a match that lasted 42 minutes.

Larissa and Talita defeated China's Chen Xue and Ningya Tang, 21-13, 21- 10, in 23 minutes in their second match.

Each of the 32 men's teams will play their final two pool matches Thursday.

American Olympians Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena, the top seeded men, are set to play Martins Plavins and Haralds Regza of Latvia, who are seeded 17th, at 12:20 p.m., and Michal Kadziola and Jakub Szalankiewicz of Poland, who are seeded 16th, at 9 p.m.

Dalhausser and Lucena needed 29 minutes to win their lone match Wednesday, defeating 32nd-seeded Romain Di Giatommaso and Maxime Thiercy of France, 21-10, 21-17.

Dalhausser, a 2008 Olympic gold medalist, said "there is a little hangover" from the Olympics and "it's a little tough to get motivated."

Lucena said he was "glad to get this first match out of the way."

Dalhausser and Lucena finished fifth in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

American Olympians Jake Gibb and Casey Patterson, who are seeded fourth, lost to the 29th-seeded Brazilian duo, Thiago and George, 24-22, 21-17, in 41 minutes.

The men's and women's fields will both be reduced to 24 teams at the conclusion of today's play, with the top three teams in each of the four-team pools advancing to the single-elimination portion of the tournament, which begins Friday. The tournament concludes Sunday.

The tournament will also include an electronic dance music concert Saturday and a celebrity match Sunday featuring actor Josh Hutcherson and retired NFL receiving star Terrell Owens.

General admission is free. More information on the tournament is available at wsobv.com.

— City News Service, photo via Pixabay